With no time to screw around, TUF 16 Finale's Pyle plans to be 'serious threat'

“It was just a mental thing for me,” Pyle said. “There were things that weren’t right in my camp that I was unhappy about, and I brought that to the fight with me. It was an amateur move for being in the game as long as I have. It just didn’t even seem like I was there fighting. The fire was gone.

“No excuses. The kid caught me and stung me pretty good, and the next thing I know they were pulling him off of me. I thought I was OK in that turtle position, but I look back at the film, and I was on my way out. It was a fair stoppage, no doubt. No complaints. No excuses. I just mentally f—ed myself in that fight.”

That kid was Rory MacDonald, the only man to beat Pyle in his past six trips to the octagon. While the fight was some 16 months ago, it’s easy to see the result still eats at Pyle’s gut. At 37 years old and with a career that dates back to the earliest days of MMA’s modern era, Pyle knows he doesn’t have time for silly setbacks. After the loss to MacDonald, Pyle said it was time for a re-invention.

“There were just too many things that I wasn’t satisfied with training and coaching-wise,” Pyle told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’ve been self-taught for years. That’s how I started in this sport: self-taught on a freaking grappling dummy in a shed for crying out loud. I was going against people like Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson with absolutely no coaches, no training partners, things like this. It was just time for me to really look at my future and look at my career, and I needed to make some changes – some serious changes needed to made because that fight shouldn’t have went that way, but it did. So it just opened up my eyes and made me realize, ‘Hey, I need to get my ass busy. I need to get some one-on-one coaching,’ and it’s helped.

“My fights speak for itself how things changed after that loss because of the decisions I made to get other coaches.”

Pyle, a founding member of Las Vegas’ Xtreme Couture team, decided he needed personalized instruction. For that, he turned to Throwdown Training Center’s Nate Pettit, and “Quicksand” said that decision has been well rewarded.

“I have a coach that’s paying attention to me 24 hours a day,” Pyle said. “I can pick the phone up at 3 o’clock in the morning – which I never would – and I can say, ‘Hey, man, I’m feeling froggy. Let’s go work on some stuff.’ He’s just that kind of guy, and he’s there for me. He doesn’t have 15 other guys to look after. He’s there for every second and every minute of my sparring rounds and filming and breaking down my own film from sparring and making sure we’re on par with what we need to do and keeping me in shape in between fights and things like that. It’s just been a real help.”

Pyle has seen the results in the cage, as well. Since the loss, he’s bounced back with first-round knockout wins over Josh Neer and Ricardo Funch. Pyle credits Pettit and new boxing coach Jimmy Gifford for his progress.

“‘Giff’ has really helped me develop my power,” Pyle said. “I feel like I’m the best fighter that I ever have been. I feel like I’m the most dangerous fighter that I ever have been. I have tons of submissions in my fights, but now it’s very clear that I can knock people out. I can finish them in that fashion. I can beat them going the distance, I can knock them out, and I can sub them. People better start taking me serious.

“I’m 37 now. I don’t have time to screw around now. I’ve made some serious changes, and I’m going to be a serious threat in the welterweight division.”

Pyle returns to action on Saturday when he faces James Head (9-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) on the FUEL TV-broadcast preliminary card of The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (the evening’s main card airs on FX). Head certainly doesn’t boast a career resume like Pyle, but he is 2-0 since making the move from middleweight down to 170 pounds.

“I think it’s a good matchup for me,” Pyle said. “I think on an experience level, I’ve been in there with some good guys over the years, and I don’t think he’s going to pose too much of a threat that I’m not able to handle and deal with and overcome.

“Tough kid. From what I hear, he’s super strong, but we’re not in a strongman contest.”

Pyle knows he can’t fight forever, and while he insists he currently feels as good as he has at any point in his career, there is a renewed sense of urgency in his ambitions. A veteran of the UFC, Strikeforce, EliteXC, International Fight League and Affliction, not to mention a former WEC champion, Pyle isn’t short on big-show experience, but he feels there is still much left to accomplish before he walks away from the sport.

“I’m not 20 years old,” Pyle said. “I’ve got to stay busy. I want to stay relevant in the sport, and I want to get out there and keep trying to perform like I have been. I really feel great with my new coaching staff. … I’m more confident in my hands and my ability to finish people at whatever level they are. I can knock out any welterweight. That’s it. I can knock them all out. I can finish them. That’s it.

“I’ve just turned over a new leaf and a new way of thinking, and I’m going to make a run for it. I’m not in the UFC to be on TV and have a lot of Twitter followers. I’ve been doing this since 1997, when I wasn’t making any money, and if that don’t say something – I want to be a champion. I’m going to make my mark in this sport. I’ve been in it so long, and I’ve been involved with so many great fighters. It’s been great, but I’m going to leave my mark, as well.”

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